The biosorption process has been established as characteristics of dead biomasses of both cellulosic and microbial origin to bind metal ion pollutants from aqueous suspension. The high effectiveness of this process even at low metal concentration, similarity to ion exchange treatment process, but cheaper and greener alternative to conventional techniques have resulted in a mature biosorption technology. Yet its adoption to large scale industrial wastewaters treatment has still been a distant reality. The purpose of this review is to make in-depth analyses of the various aspects of the biosorption technology, staring from the various biosorbents used till date and the various factors affecting the process. The design of better biosorbents for improving their physico-chemical features as well as enhancing their biosorption characteristics has been discussed. Better economic value of the biosorption technology is related to the repeated reuse of the biosorbent with minimum loss of efficiency. In this context desorption of the metal pollutants as well as regeneration of the biosorbent has been discussed in detail. Various inhibitions including the multi mechanistic role of the biosorption technology has been identified which have played a contributory role to its non-commercialization.

This paper mainly focuses on the research of the monitoring data about the total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) of ten monitoring points of Hongze Lake in 28 years. Our study adopts the technical methods such as difference comparison, correlation analysis, Mann-Kendall, etc. to analyze the statistical characteristics, regional differences, and temporal and spatial variation condition of ten monitoring points of Hongze Lake in 1986-2013 as well as the reason for the time and space variation of TN and TP. The results show that the TN and TP of Hongze Lake change dramatically during the period of 1994-2004. In all the monitoring periods, TN and TP of the HZ5, HZ6, HZ7, HZ8 monitoring points in the estuary surrounding the Huaihe River are the highest, which suggests that TN and TP of Hongze Lake should not be ignored for the pollution along the Huaihe River. The TN concentration in the core area is the highest, but that in the development control area is the lowest. In most of the years, TN concentration is higher than 2 mg/L, and the water quality is V class and poor V class water quality in China's Environmental Quality Standards for Surface Water (GB3838-2002). TP concentration of the three areas is basically close, that is lower than 2 mg/L in most of the years, and the water quality is within the V class. The TN and TP concentration of Hongze Lake decreased and intensifying trend of eutrophication is controlled after 2004.

The growth of the algae strains Neochloris oleabundans, Botryococcus Braunii and Dunaliella sp. under mixotrophic conditions in the presence of different concentrations of crude glycerol was evaluated with the objective of increasing the biomass growth and algal oil content. A high biomass concentration was characteristic of these strains when grown on crude glycerol compared to autotrophic growth, and 5 g/L glycerol yielded the highest biomass concentration for these strains. Mixotrophic conditions improved both the growth of the microalgae and the accumulation of triacylglycerols (TAGs). The maximum amount of TAGs in the algal strains was obtained in the 5 g/L glycerol growth medium. The fatty acid profiles of the oil for the cultures met the necessary requirements and are promising resources for biofuel production.

Mercury is a toxic pollutants present in different types of industrial effluents and is responsible for environmental pollution. Removal of Hg(II) ions from synthetic wastewater was studied using the activated biocarbon produced from the leaves of Tridax procumbens (Asteraceae). The particle size of the biocarbon (BC) is in the range of . The effects of initial metal ion concentration, pH, contact time, and amount of biocarbon on the biosorption process were studied at temperature of . Batch experimental studies showed that an equilibrium time of 160 min was required for the maximum removal of Hg(II) at the optimized biocarbon dose of 2.5 g per 100 mL of synthetic wastewater. The optimum pH required for maximum removal (96.5%) of Hg(II) ions was found to be 5.5. The biosorption of metal ions onto activated biocarbon surface is probably via an ion exchange mechanism. The biocarbon can be regenerated with minimum loss. Further, it can be reused without any chemical activation. The findings of the research suggested that, the biocarbon produced from cost effective renewable resources can be utilized for the treatment of industrial wastewater.

The cyanobacterium Anabaena doliolum Ind1 isolated from a coal mining site was tested for removal of cadmium at optimum pH 7.0 and temperature . The organism recorded high percentage of metal removal (92-69%) within seven days of exposure to 0.5-2.0 ppm cadmium. Biosorption onto the cell surface was the primary mode of metal removal. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) established hydroxyl, amides, carboxyl, sulphate and carbonyl groups to be the major functional groups on the cell surface involved in cadmium binding. Cellular ultrastructure and a range of vital physiological processes (i.e., photosynthetic pigments, respiration, photosynthesis, heterocyst frequency and nitrogenase activity) remained unaffected upon 0.5 ppm treatment; higher concentrations of cadmium exerted visible adverse effects. Amongst the five photosynthetic pigments tested, phycocyanin was the most targeted pigment (inhibition was 15-89%). Both respiration and photosynthetic activities were inhibited by cadmium with more severe effect seen on respiration. 2.0 ppm cadmium exposure also had drastic negative effect on nitrogenase activity (87% decreased).

As expected, the expression of denitrifying genes in a Typha wetland (relatively stagnant compared to other ponds), showing higher nitrogen removal efficiency in summer, was affected by temperature. The abundance and gene transcripts of nitrate reductase (narG), nitrite reductase (nirS), nitric oxide reductase (norB), and nitrous oxide reductase (nosZ) genes in seasonal sediment samples taken from the Acorus and Typha ponds of free surface flow constructed wetlands were investigated using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) and quantitative reverse transcription PCR (Q-RT-PCR). Denitrifying gene copy numbers ( genes sediment) were found to be higher than transcript numbers-( transcripts sediment) of the Acorus and Typha ponds, in both seasons. Transcript numbers of the four functional genes were significantly higher for Typha sediments, in the warm than in the cold season, potentially indicating greater bacterial activity, during the relatively warm season than the cold season. In contrast, copy numbers and expression of denitrifying genes of Acorus did not provide a strong correlation between the different seasons.

About 4,500 mass burial sites of carcasses from the 2010/2011 outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth (FMD) disease in Korea show very slow stabilization speed, although more than 3 years have passed. Therefore, a plan is being considered to boost the speed of stabilization or removal. This is a study on the social value of the removal plan for 4,500 mass burial sites from the 2010/2011 outbreak of FMD in Korea. This valuation is based on the survey of 1,000 people living all over Korea. Korean people have a willingness to pay 101.2 billion Korean Won (about US $100 million). This value is a large amount, but it is small compared to the cost of a FMD outbreak. The cost for the Korean government from 5 outbreaks since 2000 ranged from 28.8 billion Won to 3.2 trillion Won. These were the costs only paid by the Korean government. One estimate reported that there would be a total damage of 1.4 trillion Won, if FMD outbreak occurs in Jeju Islands, a small part of Korea. If burial sites have very slow stabilization speed and some hazardous contents, the social damage will exceed the removal cost.

A comparative study on response of a toxic compound thiocyanate () was carried out in continuous and fed batch moving bed reactor systems. Both systems had three sequential anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic reactors and operated at same hydraulic retention time. Feed was first increased from 600 mg/L to 1,000 mg/L for 3 days (shock 1) and then from 600 to 1,200 mg/L for 3 days (shock 2). In anaerobic continuous reactor, increase of effluent COD (chemical oxygen demand) due to shock load was only 2%, whereas in fed batch reactor it was 14%. In anoxic fed batch reactor recovery was partial in terms of , phenol, COD and -N and -N removals and in continuous reactor complete recovery was possible. In both systems, inhibition was more significant on aerobic reactors than anaerobic and anoxic reactors. In aerobic reactors ammonia removal efficiency deteriorated and damage was irreversible. Present study showed that fed batch reactors showed higher substrate removal efficiency than continuous reactors during regular operation, but are more susceptible to toxic feed shock load and in nitrifying reactor damage was irreversible.

The aim of this study was to examine the phosphate (P) removal by quintinite from aqueous solutions. Batch experiments were performed to examine the effects of reaction time, temperature, initial phosphate concentration, initial solution pH and stream water on the phosphate adsorption to quintinite. Kinetic, thermodynamic and equilibrium isotherm models were used to analyze the experimental data. Results showed that the maximum P adsorption capacity was 4.77 mgP/g under given conditions (initial P concentration = 2-20 mgP/L; adsorbent dose = 1.2 g/L; reaction time = 4 hr). Kinetic model analysis showed that the pseudo second-order model was the most suitable for describing the kinetic data. Thermodynamic analysis indicated that phosphate sorption to quintinite increased with increasing temperature from 15 to , indicating the spontaneous and endothermic nature of sorption process (; ; to -52.56 kJ/mol). Equilibrium isotherm analysis demonstrated that both Freundlich and Redlich-Peterson models were suitable for describing the equilibrium data. In the pH experiments, the phosphate adsorption to quintinite was not varied at pH 3.0-7.1 (1.50-1.55 mgP/g) but decreased considerably at a highly alkaline solution (0.70 mgP/g at pH 11.0). Results also indicated that under given conditions (initial P concentration=2 mgP/L; adsorbent dose=0.8 g/L; reaction time=4 hr), phosphate removal in the stream water (1.88 mgP/g) was lower than that in the synthetic solution (2.07 mgP/g), possibly due to the presence of anions such as (bi)carbonate and sulfate in the stream water.

To treat leather industry wastewater (LIW) containing high nitrogen concentration, eight aerobic denitrifiers were isolated from sludge existing in an LIW-treatment aeration tank. Among them, one strain named as KH8 had showed the great ability in denitrification under an aerobic condition, and it was identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa R12. The aerobic denitrification ability of the strain KH8 was almost comparable to its anaerobic denitrification ability. In lab-scale aerobic denitrifications performed in 1-L five-neck flasks for 48 hr, denitrification efficiency was found to be much improved as the strain KH8 held a great majority in the seeded cells. From the nitrogen balance at the cell-combination ratio of 10:1 (the strain KH8 to the other seven isolates) within the seeded cells, the percentage of nitrogen loss during the aerobic denitrification process was estimated to be 58.4, which was presumed to be converted to gas. When these seeded cells with lactose were applied to plant-scale aeration tank for 56 day to treat high-strength nitrogen in LIW, the removal efficiencies of and TN were achieved to be 97.0% and 89.8%, respectively. Under this treatment, the final water quality of the effluent leaving the treatment plant was good enough to meet the water-quality standards. Consequently, the isolated aerobic denitrifiers could be suitable for the additional requirement of nitrogen removal in a limited aeration-tank capacity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of aerobic denitrifiers applied to plant-scale LIW treatment.

Remediation of wastewater contaminated with metal(II)-complexed species (Cu(II)-NTA (NTA: nitrilotriacetic acid), Cu(II)-EDTA (EDTA: ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid) and Cd(II)-EDTA is attempted using the potential applicability of ferrate(VI). Kinetics of pollutant degradation is obtained with the removal of ferrate(VI) studied at wide range of pH (8.0-10.0) and the concentration of metal(II)-complexed species (0.3 to 15.0 mmol/L) employing a constant dose of ferrate(VI) i.e., 1.0 mmol/L. Pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order rate constants were obtained in the reduction of ferrate(VI) which was then employed to obtain the overall rate constants of the pollutant degradation. The mineralization of NTA and EDTA was obtained with the change in TOC (total organic carbon) values collected by the ferrate(VI) treated pollutant samples. Decrease in pH and molar pollutant concentrations was greatly favored the percent mineralization of NTA or EDTA by the ferrate(VI) treatment. The treated pollutant samples were filtered and subjected for AAS (atomic absorption spectrophotometric) analysis to assess the simultaneous removal of copper and cadmium from aqueous solutions at the studied pH as well at the elevated pH 12.0. Results show that an enhanced removal of cadmium or copper was achieved at pH 12.0. Overall, ferrate(VI) possesses multifunctional application in wastewater treatment as it oxidizes the degradable impurities and removes metallic impurities by coagulation process.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of forward osmosis (FO) system for harvesting microalgae cultivated in secondary sewage effluent. Microalgae species used in this study were chlorella sp. ADE4. The drawing agents used for forward osmosis system were seawater and concentrate of sea water reverse osmosis (SWRO) system. Chlorella sp. ADE4 cultured in secondary sewage effluent illustrated moderate efficiency in removal of total nitrogen (TN) (68%) and superior performance in total phosphorus (TP) removal (99%). Comparison of seawater and SWRO concentrate as drawing agent were made in FO membrane separation of the microalgae. The result from this study depicts that SWRO concentrate is strong drawing agent in FO membrane system providing an average dewatering rate of compared to seawater with average dewatering of . Results obtained from this study indicated that FO system could be viable option for harvesting the microalgae for further biodiesel production. SWRO concentrate as a drawing agent could be very important finding in field of membrane technology for disposal of SWRO concentrate.

Triclosan is a synthetic antimicrobial agent used in numerous industrial and personal care products. Triclosan collected in wastewater treatment plants can be biodegraded up to 80%. However, little is studied about the abundances of known triclosan-degrading bacteria in activated sludge systems. A previous study reported that Sphingopyxis strain KCY1 isolated from activate sludge can cometabolically degrade triclosan. Recently, a quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay specific to strain KCY1 has been developed. Thus, this study investigated the abundance of strain KCY1 in three different activated sludge wastewater treatments using a qPCR assay. Additionally, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), known as triclosan-degraders, and amoA gene were quantified. Strain KCY1 were detected in activated sludge samples from three different wastewater treatment plants. The concentrations of strain KCY1 and AOB were on the order of gene copies/mL, while amoA gene concentration was on the order of gene copies/mL.